Cubist Scripture

Constant reading of Scripture highlights the tendency of the writers to examine
an event from different angles, even if the angles do not join seamlessly. At
least two creation stories coexist in Genesis; Samuel gives several accounts
of David’s initial encounter with Saul; Kings and Chronicles have the
same story told from different viewpoints; and four Gospels look at the life
of Christ—three from slightly different angles and one from a totally
different perspective. The Scriptures practice a form of literary Cubism.

Painters noticed that the normal way of depicting a three-dimensional object
on the two-dimensional plane of a painting did not allow the painter to show
all sides of it. Cubists like Picasso experimented with ways of showing all
sides of an object in the same painting. Although even cubist paintings did
not capture the richness of triple dimensionality, they hinted at it, reminding
the viewer of the innate limitations of the medium of painting in depicting
reality.

The Scriptures do something similar. No doubt venerable traditions were cobbled
together and inconsistencies only partly smoothed out, but the constant use
of multiple, juxtaposed narratives reveals the intent of the Author. Scripture
gives a God’s-eye view of history and thereby implicitly claims divine
inspiration. But God sees the complexity of history far better than men can.
The kingship in Israel was a punishment, a disaster, a blessing, and a promise
of the Messiah all at once. David, a man after God’s own heart, was also
a calculating politician who did not kill Saul because regicide would be a bad
precedent for one who himself wanted to be king, and while he forgave him who
cursed him as he fled from Absalom, on his deathbed he told his son Solomon
not to let gray hairs go down quietly to the grave.

The multiple viewpoints, which coexist sometimes in the same book, hint at the
complexity of reality as God sees it. Only he can grasp the truth that lies
behind events, and this truth cannot be expressed in a single, unified narrative
line, any more than a three-dimensional object can be fully depicted in a two-dimensional
painting.

The Gospels continue this approach. Why are there four Gospels and not a single
unified narrative like Tatian’s Diatesseron? The multiple points
of view in the New Testament remind us that reality is not easily grasped. We
are limited in our perceptions, and God, when he employs our language and narrative
structures, can give us only glimpses into the depths of reality. Paul fumbles
when using language to express the mystery of Christ: “Eye has not seen,
nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man . . .”; Paul
ends in stammering praise.

One danger that revelation poses is that man will think that he possesses
God’s word rather than that he is possessed by it. That is, he may think
that he fully grasps and completely understands God’s message as if it
were a communication from another human being. This is a danger of fundamentalism,
which has strong rationalist tendencies and wants to understand God’s
mysterious word as if it could be comprehended in simple human categories. The
multiple narratives serve as a rebuke to this mistake.

God’s revelation in nature can also be understood only under multiple
categories. Newtonian physics thought it could set forth all God’s work
in the universe as a system of discrete particles in motion, for Newton also
thought he could understand the prophecies in simple terms. But modern physics
sees the universe from multiple angles. Modern physics began when physicists
realized that light could be understood as both a particle in motion and as
a wave. The simple Newtonian universe rapidly became kaleidoscopic: Particles
could never be fully observed, since the very act of observation changed them.

In a universe in which physical events can be understood in multiple ways,
relativism in the moral dimension also becomes a threat. But precisely because
we cannot fully understand the story, precisely because we cannot, even with
the light of God’s revelation, fully comprehend the meaning of events,
we are left in a state of learned ignorance, in which we must rely upon the
light of the Law to guide our paths. We would be fools to try to make our way
through history, including our personal histories, by plotting out all the details
of our narratives and all the consequences of our actions. We can foresee some
consequences, but not all, and even those only dimly, and we cannot fully understand
the meaning of our own lives, never mind all of history.

The Word of God, although it does not (and in this world perhaps cannot) reveal
the full meaning of history, nonetheless serves as a reliable guide and path
to follow to attain our goal. As has been said, the Scriptures teach not how
the heavens go but how to go to heaven. Nor do they teach the full meaning and
consequences of every event, but they show us the signposts that lead to the
heavenly city. The pilgrim who wants to get home would do well to follow those
signposts, even if he does not understand everything he sees along the way.

Leon J. Podles holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia and has worked as a teacher and a federal investigator. He is the author of The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity and the forthcoming License to Sin (both from Spence Publishing). Dr. Podles and his wife have six children and live in Naples, Florida. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.

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Touchstone is a Christian journal, conservative in doctrine and eclectic in content, with editors and readers from each of the three great divisions of Christendom—Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox.

The mission of the journal and its publisher, The Fellowship of St. James, is to provide a place where Christians of various backgrounds can speak with one another on the basis of shared belief in the fundamental doctrines of the faith as revealed in Holy Scripture and summarized in the ancient creeds of the Church.